1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of estimating the location of a failure or the like in a fluid feed pipeline network, and more particularly relates to a method of determining the location of a failure in a fluid feed pipeline network which can be suitably used for estimation of the location of a failure in a water pipeline network.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been various proposals with respect to monitoring abnormal conditions of a lifeline such as a water pipeline network. The Japanese Patent No. 3,082,965 discloses an invention of a method of monitoring a water pipeline and an apparatus therefor using a memory card. The object of the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H09-43010 is to shorten a restoration time of a system by quickly detecting the specific location of a failure in a lifeline. A number of sensors dedicated to detecting failures and the like are installed along the lifeline to collect data.
In an existing water pipeline network spread across a wide area, it is difficult to obtain data at an arbitrary time or with an arbitrary interval with sensors located at arbitrary positions. Since detection of a failure in a water pipeline network can be essentially thought to be detection of a change in a flow path resistance, such detection is achieved by detecting a change in a flow rate caused by the change in the flow path resistance. Therefore, detection of failures can be realized by installing flowmeters (ultrasonic type, watermill type, pitot-tube type, electromagnetic type, or other types of flowmeters) at desired positions. However, an existing water pipeline network has many parts that are underground, making it difficult to install flowmeters in most cases.